This is a series of shorts about Tsuruya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, based on the iconic format of the Nyorōn Churuya-san manga. Episodes mainly concern her search for smoked cheese. Yeah…This is really what this anime is about.

To be technical, this is a Kyoto Animation production and boy… you really have to give these guys a pass on this one but it will be extremely hard to do such a thing. The animation is quite simple and it looks like it was done without breaking a sweat. This is because it is a faithful adaptation to the Churuya-san spinoff that does the exact same thing. The designs are different and for some reason. Churuya (who is the chibi version of Tsuruya) and Ashakura (Asakura’s Chibi) look undeniably cute, naive, and optimistic, while Haruhi, Kyon, Mikiru, Yuki, and Koizumi look irritated and pessimistic. I really don’t know what to make of this one. This is a huge contrast from Haruhi-chan in terms of scope, and humor, and that actually is the only interesting thing about Churuya-san.

There is hardly any music in this ONA, so I’ll just move on to another topic…

The voice acting I will mention. Aya Hirano, Tomokazu Sugita, Minori Chihara, and Daisuko Ono do pretty well with the pessimistic attitude while Yuki Matsuoka sounds pretty adorable yet a little annoying in the show, but blame the writing on this one. The same can be said with the dub too. Wendee Lee can do a negative sounding role just fine, Crispin Freeman nails it , Michelle Ruff is great and Kari Wahlgren (like Matsuoka-san) is adorable and a little annoying. Extra props go to Yuko Gato and Stephanie Sheh for completely throwing us in a loop when Asahina spoke. Japanese cast and English Dub cast play their roles as they were told to.

Which leads me to the characters. If you remember, I mentioned that Churuya-san and Ashakura are the chibi versions of Tsuruya and Asakura. Haruhi and the SOS Brigade are portrayed look nothing like the the main series before and since. This may lead some people feeling a little split between others. Again, this may have been the original intent.

There is no plot to Churuya-san and as hard as this may sound, this is actually a unique anime. It faithfully represents the 4-panel comic strip of the same name and as an adaptation, it does this well. It is also a stark contrast to The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya. I mean everything in Haruhi-chan is the opposite with Churuya-san. Is this a good thing? That is hard for me to answer simply because this will be hard to accept. The length of the entire thing is 23 minutes, which is comparable to an episode of an anime. It is very short yet it does not appeal to everyone. That is this spinoff’s main issue. As an adaptation, it succeeds… the end result is varied among viewers. I only found a moment or two that I thought was worth seeing, everything else… I kept thinking “what the hell is this?” Some may find it cute, some will find it repetitive and annoying. This spinoff is unique but it will probably not leave a legacy behind.

Nyoron Churuya-san was available by Bandai Entertainment. It was released alongside The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and it is out of print.

With all that said, Nyoron Churuya-san is a very short spinoff to the Haruhi series. This spinoff is passable since the animation is simplistic but not terrible, not much of a soundtrack, not much character impressions, and a duration of 23 minutes that some might feel it to be pointless to sit through. You are not missing much, but if you like weirdness in a spin-off… View this one with low expectations.

Story: Nyoron Churuya-san is one of the oddest animes I have ever seen. It actually takes the mickey out of the show it is from. Its....odd O_O

Each one of these 2 minute episodes is a short story about Churuya on her quest for smoked cheese. I did not find these particularly entertaining to watch, but two or three episodes were fairly good and they did get a few odd laughs out of me. Just a few.

Sadly, the remaining eight or nine of these episodes remaining did nothing for me. I found them dull, uninteresting and, to be quite frank, pointless. I think as a whole this whole series WAS pointless. It in no way had anything to it like the original HaruhiSuzumiya anime. It did not make you want to watch the original anime. In fact, it STOPPED you from watching it.

Animation: Ok, I must admit the animation in Nyoron Churuya-san was pretty good for a web anime like this. Churuya herself I found looking quite impressive and all the backgrounds looked pretty.

Sadly, all the other characters like Mikuru, Nagato and Itsuki looked dreadful. All the other characters except for Churuya and another girl called Asakura had these weird frowny faces all through all the series. I saw no point in this, except to draw more focus to the two characters without these awful expressions.

Sound: This anime had pretty much no music to it, only short jingles. Thankfully, these jingles weren't that annoying. They blended in but were not noticeable enough to compliment the show.

Characters: Well.....where to begin... Churuya's sudden obsesson for smoked cheese came out of nowhere and was just... weird. Asakura was a funny character to watch though, throughout various episodes she would attempt to confess her undying love to Kyon- though where these feelings of hers came friom I sure don't know.

As for the other characters, they were all the same dull, cruel characters. I thought Kyon was good, he got a few laughs out of me, but Haruhi, Itsuki and Nagato I didn't like. Mikuru however I liked more in this state: no longer used for pointless fanservice, she was no longer waltzing around the screen with her F-cup breasts and squealing like a baby when a single speck of dust comes her way, I found the boring Mikuru much more likeable.

Overall: Would I recommend this? No. Not even if you're a diehard Haruhi fan. I saw no point in this, its just too odd for me.

Story: There is no story, that is the honest truth. Then again, do you really expect a story from a parody? Churuya-chan is simply a chibi form of Tsuruya, the hyper-active friend of Mikuru from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. This mini-parody-serie centers on one of four recurring "scenarios". These following scenarios might be of spoiler, but what is there to spoil in the first place?

Churuya-chan's ongoing quest to find/have/eat smoked cheese (Smochi) and ending the small segments of roughly 30 secounds with "Nyoro~n".

The point of the "story" was just for a light comic relief where you can just relax, smile and chuckle at the situation(s) taking place. PLEASE, do not take this seriously or you'll explode.

Animation + Sound: The animation for Nyoro~n was quite simple and lighthearted, as you would expect from chibi parodies. The reason I give the animation and sound a high mark is because they did what they were suppose to do; simplify the situation and entertain the viewers with, as mentioned before, light comic relief.

Characters: Characters were stereotypical and at its minimum potential.

Churuya was all about smoked cheese and was a stereotypical chibi.

Ashakura was only there to try to confess to Kyon

Kyon, Mikuru and Itsuki were oblivious to almost everything

Haruhi was... Haruhi

Dust-chan was....... useless-hikori

Overall: This little show has almost nothing to offer but it is a great light comedy for people that watched Haruhi and loves chibis. Although most Haruhiist would surely go insane from watching this, they are missing the point; THISSHOW IS NOT MEANT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. Other than giving some smiles and temporary chuckles, this parody has little to offer. Why give an "7" for this waste of production? It's because I did not expect anything from it, that way I got a little joy out of watching it. I think I spoiled quite a lot about this mini-series.

This anime has no story, and it lacks the charm to make up for it either. There where few jokes that made me smile, and even fewer that made me even giggle. The "story" in this series is a mockery to all the TMoHS fans out there. I will give this series a little bit of lee-way because its so short, you could probably watch this whole series in a half hour. But this really was horrible in both story and the jokes sucked.

-Animation-

There were a lot of stills and repeated animation in this series. Also the art that was shown was terrible, and there was little in the way of making the characters look any different from eachother. Haruhi looked liky Kyon with a sailor suit uniform and a headband. The animation was simply bad.

-Characters-

The characters in this series are flat and boring, and they are nothing like their TMoHS counter-parts. Churuya-san was given a flat and bland personality, with only one thing on her mind at all times, smoked cheese.

-Overall-

In short, this series is a cruel and twisted joke played on TMoHS fans, who are looking for a good spin-off series. This is borderline insulting to me personally as a fan. I do however, give it something, due to its lack of length. But there are more fun things to do with your time than waste it watching this, like getting a root canal.

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